University of Denver

Resources

Books

Douglas, Ann. The Unofficial Guide to Childcare. Indianapolis: Wiley, 1998. Childcare has always been a concern for parents. There are more than 20 million U.S. households with young children, more than half of whom receive care from someone other than the parents. So how exactly is a mother and/or a father to wade through the options to determine what's right for their family? The Unofficial Guide to Childcare can help set minds at ease with its unbiased, street-smart style and practical tools to help parents interview caregivers and evaluate childcare facilities. From assessing a particular child's needs to finding a caregiver, assessing health and safety practices to noticing warning signs in daycare facilities, to transitioning a child into daycare, this guide will aid parents as they make one of the biggest decisions of their lives.

Hirsch, Barton Jay. A Place to Call Home: After-School Programs for Urban Youth. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2005. Available in the Penrose Library HQ778.63.H57 2005. Across the political spectrum, there is enormous interest in how local community organizations can help raise children who are growing up in poverty. This timely book examines the processes and outcomes at six inner-city Boys & Girls Clubs—one of the leading youth development organizations in the country. Featuring critical analysis and practical guidelines from a well-known authority on early adolescence, this information-packed volume: * Demonstrates how after-school programs emphasizing staff mentoring can provide critical resources for helping urban youth navigate the tumult of early adolescence. * Includes engaging stories, the voices of adolescents, examinations of their interaction with staff, and analysis of the linkage between these relationships and youth well-being. * Examines how savvy staff embrace positive dimensions of youth culture to enhance program effectiveness. * Includes specific guidelines for how these types of after-school programs can build on what they do best, including how to incorporate selected aspects of more structured approaches. * Investigates how gender shapes after-school programs.

Waldfogel, Jane. What Children Need. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2006. Available in the Penrose Library HQ767.9.W35 2006. What Children Need argues that there are three principles that policy makers should use to ensure that children's needs are met: respecting parental choice, promoting quality, and supporting parental employment. Waldfogel believes that there are tensions among these values and it is by identifying and grappling with the tensions that we will find real possibilities for creative solutions

Parenting

Bassett, Rachel Hile, ed. Parenting and Professing : Balancing Family Work with an Academic Career. Nashville: Vanderbilt UP, 2005. Available in the Penrose Library LB2332.32 .P37 2005. The challenge of raising children while pursuing an academic career has come to be seen as one of the biggest obstacles to women’s success in the academy. Parenting and Professing, a compilation of 24 first-person narratives about the challenges, possibilities, and prospects for change of combining motherhood with an academic career, makes an important addition to the growing literature on this topic.

Klein, Barbara Schave. Raising Gifted Kids: Everything You Need to Know to Help Your Exceptional Child Thrive. New York: AMACOM, American Management Association, 2007. Available in the Penrose Library HQ773.5.K54 2007. While it can be rewarding to raise an extremely bright child -- quick, curious, sensitive, and introspective -- it’s also a daunting challenge. Parents need insight into their own motivations (as well as those of their children), and the courage and ability to make tough decisions about their child’s development. Raising Gifted Kids will help parents understand and cope with the obstacles they face in raising a gifted child, and help them make the best choices for their son’s or daughter’s growth and happiness. This upbeat and practical book reveals how parents can: * help develop their child’s potential and self-esteem without pressuring them * plan their child’s education * work optimally with schools and teachers * recognize and prevent problems * solve family conflicts over parenting issues * avoid the dangers of living vicariously through their child’s accomplishments

Kristal, Jan. The Temperament Perspective: Working with Children’s Behavioral Styles. New York: Paul H. Brookes, 2005. Available in the Penrose Library BF723.T53 K75 2005. According to Kristal, once you understand the basics of temperament, you can use that knowledge to address children’s behavior challenges and improve classroom interactions. This is your practical guide to understanding and working with children’s individual temperaments. The book starts with a review of how temperament traits combine to affect behavior, and then looks at age-specific behavior patterns and temperaments typically seen in infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and school-age children. Kristal examines environmental factors that influence children’s behavior in five different settings: home, school, child care, health care, and mental health settings. Guidelines on when to seek outside help are included, and two appendixes provide information on age-specific temperament questionnaires and further readings.

Nutt, Linda. The Lives of Foster Carers: Private Sacrifices, Public Restrictions. New York: Routledge, 2006. Available in the Penrose Library HV887.G7 N88 2006. While there has been a substantial amount of social research about fostered children, little is known about the adults who look after them. By focusing on the carer, not the child or the social worker, The Lives of Foster Carers offers the reader a new perspective on foster care. It explores the contradictions, conflicts and ambiguities faced by foster carers every day and looks at how public bureaucracy and private family life intertwine. Based on a wide range of literature and in-depth interviews with 46 foster carers, this book provides valuable insight into the concerns, processes and experiences of foster carers.

EDUCATING CHILDREN

Dery, Kathi Whelan. The Giant Encyclopedia of Monthly Activities for Children 3 to 6: Written by Teachers for Teachers. Beltsville, MD: Gryphon House, 2006. Available in the Penrose Library LB1139.35.A37 G533 2006. The tenth in the best-selling series, this book has over 600 activities written by teachers for teachers. The result of a nationwide contest, these activities were selected as the best-of-the-best, and are organized by month for easy use by teachers or parents. Educators will love the activities that span the traditional areas of the curriculum, such as science, math, art, and music and movement, and it also include ideas for additional experiences such as field trips, cooking, and holidays.

Giuliani, George A. The Big Book of Special Education Resources. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, 2006. Available in the Penrose Library LC3965.G538 2006. There are abundant resources in the field of special education for professionals and parents of children with special needs. However, it can be a daunting task to navigate through this sea of organizations, Web sites, books, and other resources in order to find exactly what you need. This guide can take the guesswork out of the search for information and materials. Practical and easy to use, this ready-reference is borne out of extensive research and numerous interviews with parents and professionals to ensure selection of only the highest-caliber and most sought-after resources. It covers everything from federal agencies and professional organizations to IEP information and lesson plans, and provides extensive resources for all 50 states.

Maeroff, Gene I. Building Blocks: Making Children Successful in the Early Years of School. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. Available in the Penrose Library LB1139.23.M34 2006. A student’s entire journey along the educational spectrum is affected by what occurs—and, crucially, by what does not occur—before the age of eight or nine. Yet early learning has never received the attention it deserves and needs. In his latest book, education expert Gene Maeroff takes a hard look at early learning and the primary grades of schooling. Building Blocks offers a concrete and groundbreaking strategy for improving early education. Filled with colorful descriptions and anecdotes from Maeroff’s visits to schools around the country, Building Blocks creates a rich portrait of education in America, ranging from math lessons imported from Singapore in Massachusetts to serious but joyful kindergartens in California. He speaks of the need for schools to prepare for the burgeoning enrollment of youngsters from immigrant families and for all children to acquire the habits and dispositions that will make them committed and productive students. Maeroff issues a call to action for policy makers and parents alike.

ELDER CARE

Cassidy, Thomas M. Elder Care: What to Look For, What to Look Out For! Far Hills, NJ: 2004. Using real cases and collaborating with professionals in the fields of geriatric medicine, law, and finance, Cassidy takes the guesswork out of decision making and provides a failsafe blueprint for planning the senior years. Including a definitive list of national, state, and internet resources for assistance with elder-care issues and dilemmas, this new edition meets the changing needs of today's growing mature population and unlocks the secrets to healthy and serene golden years.

Cohen, Donna and Carl Eisdorfer. The Loss of Self: A Family Resource for the Care of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders.New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2002.Despite greater public awareness and continued research, no cure for Alzheimer's Disease has yet been found. However, Eisdorfer, president/chief executive officer of Montefiore Medical Center and professor of psychiatry and neurosciences at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and Cohen, a gerontologist also affiliated with Montefiore and Einstein College, believe that these accounts of how families have coped with the debilitating disease may help other afflicted families to better manage the lives of the patient and themselves. The authors advise readers on developing and implementing a comprehensive, affordable life care plan to handle both practical and emotional matters. They discuss the sensitive relationships between doctor, family and patient, and the need to consider the interests of individual family members. The selection of a nursing home and chapters on dying and the cost of care complete this compassionate and sensible guidebook.

Conner, Karen Ann. Continuing To Care: Older Americans and their Families. New York: Falmer Press, 2000. Available in the Penrose Library HV 1461.C666 1999. Continuing to Care describes the challenges of an aging America and changing family system. Caregiving has always been a primary obligation of the family based on an informal intergenerational contract that specifies "who owes what to whom." This system of intergenerational reciprocity has been a central feature of American family life and has formed the foundation for successful social programs such as Social Security and Medicare that support older Americans. Recent changes in the American family threaten the intergenerational family contract. Changing definitions of family, increasing divorce and remarriage rates, the establishment of blended families, and dramatic changes in the age structure and intergenerational composition of the family affect the ability of this important social unit to continue to provide care to its members. Change in the American family system raises some difficult personal and social questions. What is the obligation of adult children to elderly frail parents? Are we expected to provide care ourselves or is supervising care provided by others an acceptable alternative? Do the same rules apply in the case of step parents? What is a child's obligation to a long absent father? Can Americans continue to juggle responsibility for their children with the demands of careers and the needs of aging parents? How much longer will we do it? And what will society do if we decide to stop? Continuing to Care brings these questions into the public forum for consideration and debate.

Mezey, Mathy Doval et. al., eds.The Encyclopedia of Elder Care. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2004. Elder care has become a growing concern for many families, communities, health professionals, and the many establishments that provide living arrangements for the elderly. To work in elder care, as a professional caregiver or a family care provider, requires a command of current information from multiple disciples, including nursing, medicine, social work, counseling, as well as dentistry and physical therapy. Now, for the first time, this information has been gathered in a single source. The Encyclopedia of Elder Care features nearly three hundred articles providing practical information on how to care for elders. Written by more than three hundred experts, this accessible state-of-the-art resource addresses home care, including family-based care; nursing-home care; rehabilitation; case management; social services; assisted living; palliative care; and more. Each article concludes with references to pertinent Web sites. Easy to read and extensively cross-referenced, this comprehensive resource on geriatric and social care will be an indispensable tool for all who care for our nation's elders.